October 9th in History

Bombing of St. Paul's Cathedral

October 9 is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years). There are 83 days remaining until the end of the year. (Photo: St. Paul’s Cathedral following its bombing, 10/9/1940. Credit: H. Mason)

Today in History

  • Charlemagne is crowned King of the Franks (768)
  • The Korean 한글 (hangul) alphabet is introduced (1446)
  • This day does not exist in Italy, Poland, Portugal, or Spain because of the introduction of the Gregorian calendar (1582)
  • The light from Kepler’s Supernova reaches Earth (1604)
  • Rhode Island founder Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1635)
  • Yale University (Collegiate School of Connecticut) is chartered (1701)
  • The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public (1888)
  • Eight Chicago White Sox players throw the World Series and trigger the Black Sox Scandal (1919)
  • Generators at Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) begin transmitting electricity to Los Angeles (1936)
  • A Luftwaffe bomb hits St. Paul’s Cathedral (1940)
  • The Phantom of the Opera premiers in London (1986)
  • A 13 kilogram meteorite lands in a driveway in Peekskill, New York, destroying a 1980 Chevrolet Malibu (1992)
  • The SR-71 makes its last flight (1999)
  • North Korea tests its first nuclear device (2006)
  • Members of the Pakistani Taliban attempt to assassinate ملالہ یوسف زئی‎ (Malala Yousafzai) on her way home from school (2012)

Birthdays

  • Camille Saint-Saëns, composer (1835)
  • Alfred Dreyfus, accused and exonerated of treason (1859)
  • Karl Schwarzschild, astrophysicist (1873)
  • Charles Walgreen, pharmacist (1873)
  • Rube Marquand, baseball player (1886)
  • Никола́й Буха́рин (Nikolai Bukharin), purged Pravda editor (1888 – O.S.*)
  • Aimee Semple McPherson, evangelist (1890)
  • Bruce Catton, historian (1899)
  • Alastair Sim, actor (1900)
  • Walter O’Malley, moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles (1903)
  • Jacques Tati, filmmaker (1907)
  • Horst Wessel, Nazi icon (1907)
  • Werner von Haeften, anti-Hitler plotter (1908)**
  • E. Howard Hunt, Watergate figure (1918)
  • Yusef Lateef, jazz multi-instrumentalist (1920)
  • Fyvush Finkel, actor (1922)
  • Judy Tyler, Howdy Doody princess and Elvis co-star (1932)
  • Brian Blessed, actor (1936)
  • John Lennon, Beatle (1940)
  • Joe Pepitone, baseball player (1940)
  • Brian Lamb, C-SPAN founder (1941)
  • Trent Lott, politician (1941)
  • John Entwistle, Who bassist (1944)
  • Jackson Browne, singer-songwriter (1948)
  • Sharon Osbourne, reality TV star (1952)
  • Tony Shalhoub, actor (1953)
  • Scott Bakula, actor (1954)
  • Mike Singletary, football player and coach (1958)
  • Guillermo del Toro, director (1964)
  • David Cameron, UK prime minister (1966)
  • PJ Harvey, singer-songwriter (1969)
  • Savannah, porn star (1970)
  • Annika Sörenstam, golfer (1970)
  • Sean Lennon, singer-songwriter (1975)
  • Juan Dixon, basketball player (1978)
  • Brandon Routh, Superman player (1979)
  • Zachery Ty Bryan, sitcom child star (1981)
  • Scotty McCreery, American Idol (1993)

*O.S., or Old Style, refers to the fact that Russia did not change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar until 1918

**Werner von Haeften also appears in my novel Fox on the Rhine (with Douglas Niles)

Deaths

  • Benjamin Banneker, African-American astronomer and surveyor (1805)
  • Helen Morgan, torch singer (1941)
  • Pope Pius XII (1958)
  • Che Guevara, revolutionary (1967)
  • Joseph Pilates, exercise developer (1967)
  • Miriam Hopkins, actress (1972)
  • Oskar Schindler, Holocaust hero (1974)
  • Jacques Brel, singer-songwriter (1978)
  • Clare Boothe Luce, diplomat (1987)
  • Felix Wankel, engine designer (1988)
  • Walter Kerr, critic (1996)
  • Milt Jackson, vibraphonist (1999)
  • Dagmar, television personality (2001)
  • Herbert Ross, director (2001)
  • Jacques Derrida, philosopher (2004)
  • Louis Nye, comedian (2005)
  • Stuart M. Kaminsky, mystery writer (2009)

Holidays

  • Cirio de Nazare (Brazil)
  • Feast of Dionysius the Areopagite (Christianity)
  • Fire Prevention Day (US — commemorating the Great Chicago Fire of 1871)
  • Hangul Day (South Korea)
  • Independence Day (Guyaquil and Uganda)
  • Leif Erikson Day (United States, Iceland, Norway)
  • Moldy Cheese Day (Unofficial)
  • National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust (Romania)
  • National Dessert Day (US)
  • Submarine-Hoagie-Hero-Grinder Day (Unofficial)
  • 高山祭 (Takayama Autumn Festival) (Takayama, Japan)
  • World Post Day (International)